As you all know, I have been sharing about making this an “others” focused holiday season instead of a “gift” focused season. I’ve shared about many issues lately that are focused on other countries but I wanted to show Jacob that there are people near us that need help, too. We talked about how some people in our town and towns around us don’t have any homes and sometimes stay at a place called a homeless shelter. We found one near us, called Hesed House, and looked at the list of items they were in need of.
Knowing that we could easily provide some needed items, Jacob, Lucas, and I headed to our local Walmart and shopped the health and beauty aisles.
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We bought soap, shampoo, body wash, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and deodorant to donate to the shelter.
We put everything into bags and headed to the shelter. Once there I told Jacob to hop out of the car and help me with the bags. It wasn’t until we were standing outside in front of the shelter that I had noticed Jacob hadn’t put his shoes on and was standing in his socks outside the homeless shelter office.
Once we were let inside we dropped off our bags full of toiletries and briefly learned more about the mission.
Hesed House’s mission is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless and give people the chance to hope again. Today, Hesed House is a national model for ending homelessness – one person, one family at a time. It is the culmination of nearly three decades of strategic evolution from a formerly acceptable model of “eats and sheets” to a Comprehensive Homeless Resource Center – a campus of centralized highly skilled professionals collaborating to provide the tools necessary to help individuals and families break free of the shackles binding them to homelessness.
I think it’s a great ministry and one that I plan to be more involved with in the future as a volunteer. We’ve also already started a donation basket for our next visit to the shelter and will be shopping off of their Christmas wish list as well.
If you live in the Chicago area and would like to donate to this shelter please leave a comment and I’d be happy to meet and pick up donation items from you. :)
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This post is part of a #DialCFK Simple Service Project with Champions For Kids. They believe that no child should ever go to school hungry, cold or without the resources they need to thrive and as a mother I am thrilled to support them. You can connect with them on Twitter and on Facebook.
See my Google+ story for more pictures!
(Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Dial Soaps  #DialCFK  #CBias #SocialFabric )